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Photos of Lindisfarne Priory one of the first and most important Anglo Saxon Celtic Christian Priories in England.
Lindisfarne has a recorded history from the 6th century when it became one of the first sites of Celtic English Christianity when Irish Monk St Aiden was granted permission to found a Priory there in 634. The priory remained the only seat of a bishopric in Northumbria for nearly thirty years. From Lindisfarne missions were sent out to convert the English and a network of...more »

Photos of Lindisfarne Priory one of the first and most important Anglo Saxon Celtic Christian Priories in England.
Lindisfarne has a recorded history from the 6th century when it became one of the first sites of Celtic English Christianity when Irish Monk St Aiden was granted permission to found a Priory there in 634. The priory remained the only seat of a bishopric in Northumbria for nearly thirty years. From Lindisfarne missions were sent out to convert the English and a network of monasteries spread across northern England.

The Lindisfarne Priory became an important centre for copying and producing manuscripts. At some point in the early 700’s the famous illuminated manuscript known as the Lindisfarne Gospels, an illustrated Latin copy of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, was made at Lindisfarne by Eadfrith, who later became Bishop of Lindisfarne. Eardfrith was a meticulous and accomplished artist with one illuminated letter in the Gospels alone being made up of 10,000 tiny dots.

Another Bishop of Lindisfarne Priory was Saint Cuthbert ( 634 – 687), who became the patron Saint of Northumbria. He spent much time among the people, ministering to their spiritual needs, carrying out missionary journeys, preaching, and performing miracles. In 684 Cuthbert became Bishop of Lindisfarne but after 2 years he decided to look for a quieter life of contemplation and became a hermit on one of the nearby Farne Islands where he eventually died. After Viking raids threatened the sanctuary of Saint Cuthbert's tomb it was decided to exhume his relics in 875 and remove them to a safer place. It was found that his body was in tact with no signs of decomposition. In 995 a shrine was built to rehouse the saints body at Durham which let to the building of Durham’s great cathedral.

On the 8th June 793 Lindisfarne, a centre of learning that was famous across the continent, was the scene of the first recorded Viking raid in England. Monks were killed in the abbey, thrown into the sea to drown, or carried away as slaves along with the church treasures. The Viking devastation of Northumbria's Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York, who wrote: "Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared”.

After the dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536, Lindisfarne Priory slowly fell into disrepair and today is a romantic ruin overlooking a small harbour next to the village of Holy Island.

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